Bucking the trend of their U.S. counterparts, foreign auto makers are creating and expanding their U.S. production facilities, especially in the South. The employment at American companies like Ford and G.M. still dwarfs that of the newcomers, with union jobs at the Big Three plants paying a dollar or two more an hour than the nonunion jobs at the foreign plants. Foreign companies based in the South are buoyed by the fact that many southern states' laws do not require workers to join unions even if their plants are organized.
See "Foreign Makers, Settled in South, Pace Car Industry", Micheline Maynard, The New York Times, June 21, 2005